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An Interview With Fred Foote, Co-Writer and Producer of "Alleged"

By mmilam, August 20, 2010 at 10:01 am

 

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This is Fred Foote.
Mr. Foote came to my attention because Khori Faison, a young Chicago actress whom I've interviewed on this blog, will be featured in a new film called Alleged which is produced and co-written by Foote. The story centers around the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial which dealt with the issue of creationism vs. evolution controversy. Unlike 1960's Inherit The Wind, this version takes a different direction by adding other events outside the trial (according to Mr. Foote) that weren't put into the 1960 Stanley Kramer film that showcased an attempt to make Christianity look bad.
"Inherit The Wind" covered The Scopes Monkey Trial. According to you, in interviews I've read, that film only tackled the trial, but not the other events that happened outside of the trial. Is this correct?


Inherit the Wind focused loosely on the events at the Scopes trial. It strategically added, however, several dramatic events outside the trial that were all concocted to make the Christian community look hateful, ignorant, and fearful. (See the web site www.themonkeytrial.com for dozens of examples and video clips.)
With "alleged," the chief issue introduced to the usual Scopes story as it is commonly told is eugenics. Eugenics (literally, "good genes") is a doctrine of genetic superiority that argued that humans should be cultivated just as one might selectively breed a herd of cows or cross-fertilize a variety of apples. This aspect of the trial (including its inclusion in the textbook that Scopes allegedly used) has been dropped down the memory hole.
Why? Precisely because it was advanced by the same materialist elites then as who run the public schools and major media outlets today. With the support of our leading Universities and the rest of the scientific establishment, 60,000 Americans were sterilized in the name of eugenics. Who opposed it? Who forecasted that this doctrine was harmful? William Jennings Bryan, the Catholic Church, Billy Sunday, and others, of course.
This is a family production that is financed through your family's charity organization. What is your family's organization and what does it do?
The private charity used to finance the film gives to various medical research efforts, Universities, archeological organizations, historical societies, and Christian charities. The single largest beneficiary of the foundation has been, by far, the Cleveland Clinic.
One interview I read suggested that the trial itself was used by the media to take a smack at religion itself. Does this film cover that?
In 1925, the major media thought that the Scopes trial in Dayton, TN would make a swell place to finally bury fundamentalist Christianity. Since fundamentalism was personified in William Jennings Bryan, he became the target, especially of H.L. Mencken. "No one gives a damn about that yap schoolteacher --" Mencken convinced Darrow (if he needed convincing), "make a fool out of Bryan." Mencken went on to do just that, aided by the other major media in Dayton.
Khori Faison, whom I've interviewed on this blog, is featured in this film. Tell me what her character is and what her story is and how it's connected to the actual events surrounding the trial.
Khori Faison is a talented young actress with a great future. In "alleged" she plays the half-sister of Ashley Johnson (What Women Want and Growing Pains) and represents those people of mixed race who the scientists of the day thought were especially dangerous to the human gene pool because they appeared to be intelligent, attractive, and otherwise normal. The Average Joe - a person not trained in evolutionary theory - might, therefore, be tempted to marry a person of mixed race (or an epileptic, or the son or daughter of a prostitute, or a native American, etc.) and not realize how they are degrading the gene pool. Real science has demonstrated the opposite - marrying closely within a tight genetic band creates more problems than marrying far and wide across the races of mankind.
How did you sell Brian Dennehey and Fred Dalton Thompson into being in the film?
Brian Dennehy was attracted to the film because he had played the Bryan character on Broadway in Inherit the Wind (in "alleged" he was asked to play the Darrow character) and because he thought that the focus of the script on the town and the trial's impact on Dayton was interesting. Once Dennehy was on board, I think Fred Thompson, Colm Meaney, Nathan West and Ashley Johnson were easier to bring on-board. Khori was the only one we had to pay through the nose to get. :) Our casting director, Beverly Holloway, did a great job, as she has with many films.
If someone were to go see this film, when is the expected release date? Or has It not found distribution yet?
We are now talking to "producers' reps" who will then strategize with us as to which distributors to approach with the film. In the next few months we hope to have a deal for theatrical distribution, even if for a limited release. Film festivals are another option.
I would like to thank Mr. Foote for answering my questions.
If you want to see some of Mr. Foote's other work, you can access his IMDB page for more information. For more information on the film Alleged, you can visit the official web site for the film here. To read my interview with Khori Faison, please go here.

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